Nancy Grace
With any luck, the shameless state of US broadcast news bottomed out, last Tuesday at 10:14 p.m, ET, on CNN’s “Headline News.”
That’s when Nancy Grace, the ghoulish stalker of ghoulish stalkers — real and hoped-for — followed the appearance of taped testimony, earlier that day, of pretty, young Jodi Arias.
Arias is accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend by doing the things that seem to be Grace’s stock in eager, self-promotional TV trade: Shooting him in the face, stabbing him 29 times and slitting his throat, ear to ear.
When Arias’ non-specific and non-sexualized testimony recounting several of her romances ended, Grace turned to the camera and said, “Why are we learning whether she gave a guy a b- -w j-b years ago in a parking lot?”
Only she didn’t include any hyphens, nor were her words edited or later attached to an apology. For crying out loud, she appeared smug, self-satisfied to have so easily spoken such a vulgar expression on a nationally televised cable news station.
And then, in case anyone missed it, she repeated the expression.
Yet, Nancy Grace is out to get the bad guys and gals — those who would stain with blood the pure fabric of American society. She’s on the side of all that’s right. And her name, as if to remind us that the world has become satire-proof, is Grace.
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This Just In: At approximately 5:55 p.m. in WNBC-Ch. 4’s Feb. 7th newscast, a reporter said, “Just minutes ago we got word from the FAA that it will allow test flights of the [electrically impaired Boeing] 787.”
Really? That very story was in Feb. 7’s morning newspapers. But that’s the kind of “breaking news” in which our local newscasts now specialize.
Three nights earlier, Ch. 4 News credited NBC News with the breaking story that the kidnapped five-year-old in Alabama has been freed, his captor shot dead.
Really? Given that virtually every national news agency had been staked out, in Midland City, Ala., covering that story, NBC’s was the first to know? The rest had dozed off? Funny, nowhere else was NBC News credited with breaking that story.
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What’s in a name? Well, the cable network that was born The Learning Channel now prefers to be called TLC. Small wonder. Here’s a sample of what TLC last week distributed within its “Primetime Highlights” as per the show “My Strange Addiction”:
“Show No. 1 Addicted to Coffee Enemas/Licks Cats. Trina, 36, and her 43-year-old husband Mike have done over 7,000 coffee enemas over the last 2 1/2 years . . . Will concerns from family be enough to wean them from their addiction?
“And 43-year-old Lisa has been addicted to licking her cat and eating clumps of its hair. After concerns from her sister, will a doctor’s warning be enough to convince Lisa to quit before she causes permanent damage?”
To Lisa or the cat?
“Show No. 3: Addicted to Inflatables/Butt Injection Addict. For the last six years, 20-year-old Mark has been addicted to his 15 inflatable pool toys. He eats with them, sleeps with them and even bathes with them . . . ”
Enough! Enough! Okay, you win. We’ll never again confuse TLC with what used to be The Learning Channel.
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Ad of the Week: A TV commercial for the dating service Match. com includes this narrated claim: “Did you know that people who join Match.com are three times more likely to find a relationship than those who don’t?”
No, we weren’t aware of that, but we’d sure like to know from where such factual data was derived. Not that I don’t believe the ad, but I kinda figure that it would be impossible to track the relationships of those who don’t join Match.com.